You're looking at my night last night (yes, I did take a screenshot). Three long hours of call waiting after my flight was cancelled. It was due to inclement weather (shocker; this winter's been a beast). And it was P-A-I-N-F-U-L. I wish you could hear the music.

I have to admit that some weird part of me likes when I face problems because I day-dream about fixing them. Maybe you know what I'm talking about. If so, keep reading...

Here's the thing, in addition to call waiting, there are an endless number of things in the world that could be improved. So how do you actually make your ideas a reality? Aka how do you change the world? :) People often ask me what steps they need to take to start a company, so I've tried to consolidate my answer into this blog post.

Look at your problems with fresh eyes (and come up with a solution)If you're having trouble coming up with an idea for you company, I think the best thing you can do is to look at your world with fresh eyes. When you experience problems (whether it's being stuck on call waiting, walking by homeless people on your commute and wishing you could help, or losing your keys for the hundredth time this week) think about how you could fix the problem.

Vet your ideaAfter you come up with an idea to fix a problem, be sure to ask yourself these questions:

Is this a problem a lot of people face? You want to solve a big problem so that you can impact as many people as possible otherwise you won't be able to scale the business and make money for you and/or investors.

Is this a problem you're insanely passionate about fixing?Companies take a long time to build and products take a long time to bring to market. It's freaking hard. If you can't see yourself being passionate about your idea (literally fighting for it) for at least five years, I highly suggest you find a different problem to fix!

Be honest: can you make money off of your idea?Products cost money to build. Companies cost money to operate. Somehow you have to be able to generate money with your idea in order to carry it out to completion. While there are some companies that never actually make money (they operate off investment money until they are bought by another company) those are few and far between and probably one of the hardest paths to take, especially as a first-time entrepreneur. Stretch yourself to see if there is any way you can make money off your idea…

Is it an easy sale?Is your idea a no-brainer or does it require a lot of education to explain to people why it's a good idea? It's so much easier to sell to people who already know they have a problem. What industry are you selling to? Is it one with a slow sale cycle (Education, Government, Healthcare)? Is it an industry full of regulations where you'll literally need to lobby congress to enact laws that allow your company to operate? I'm not saying you should avoid tackling big problems, but I am warning you to know what you're getting into.

Is someone else already working on solving this problem? And can you build a product that is way better or way cheaper than the one that they provide. If you can't provide significant more value than they are already providing, it might be a good idea to tackle a different problem. Why invest so much time and money solving what someone else is already doing a pretty good job solving? But hey, if you can do better…go for it.

Bring other necessary people onboard your teamThink about your skill set. Are you a designer or will you have to hire one? Can you code or will you have to hire a computer programmer? Do you have a law degree or will you need an attorney? If you can bring people onboard your team as co-founders or as part-time contractors who will work for equity (a percentage of ownership in the company) you will save yourself a lot of money and a lot of frustration down the road. Being able to recruit other talented individuals to join you in your venture is a critical skill to have (and hone) as an entrepreneur and it's also the first test at whether your idea is actually a good one.

Make sure you're legal / Do things rightWhile it might be tempting to save money and jump head first into your company, throwing caution to the wind (you're an entrepreneur after all), I highly recommend that you do things right from the start. Seriously. you will thank yourself later.

Once you know that you are officially starting your company, you probably want to set up an official, legal structure. This will usually be an LLC or a Corporation. There are pros and cons of each structure (Avelist is a C-Corporation but we started out as an LLC before transitioning to a C-Corporation). While it's important to choose the right structure for you, the most important thing is to make sure you have something! This is for your protection - if someone sues you, they sue the company (and you won't lose everything). It also affects taxes, employee contracts, investor opportunities, etc.

If you plan to continue your current job (to make money) while you start your company, make sure you read over your current employer's employment policies and contracts to make sure they won't have legal rights to your product since you built it during the time you were employed by them.

Speaking of owning the rights to your company, you also want to make sure that anyone who contributes to your company (code, design, etc.) has signed a contract (usually called a Business Protection Agreement) that says they understand that their contribution is owned by the company, etc.

If you are bringing other people onto your team and offering them equity in the company, make sure that you structure your contracts so that they receive the equity on a vesting schedule (aka so that they don't quit after 2 months and walk away with a huge percentage of your company). A typical vesting schedule is four years with a one year cliff. This means that someone has to work for a full year and then they receive 1/4 of their equity. After that first year they receive 1/48 of their equity each month moving forward for the remaining three years at which point they have "vested" all of their equity and have rights to all of it.

Always be learningRead books and blog posts about entrepreneurship. Follow entrepreneurs and investors on Twitter. Study how other companies that you admire do their branding and marketing. This kind of education is free and it's real and it's awesome. Take advantage of all the great resources out there!

Speaking of great resources, if you are lucky enough to find current/former entrepreneurs to serve as mentors and advisors to you, they will have a tremendous impact on you and your company. A word to the wise: try to find advisors who know your industry. Just because someone is "good at business" or has started a company, doesn't mean they're an expert in your niche. Internet consumer companies (B2C) are completely different than business-to-business (B2B) companies and the way you market and sell and raise money for each of those companies is totally different too. Someone might be a great business lawyer but if they don't know the world of startups, they might not have processes in place to keep your costs low. Keep this in mind and at least use it as a filter when you ask for advice.

Understand your financial situationLet's talk about money. This should be a full blog post in itself, but I'll try to hit the highlights here and I'm going to be super blunt.

Raising money is freaking hard. Unless you have friends or family that can invest in your idea, you will rarely find an investor who invests in just an idea itself. They want to see proof that your idea will work and that you are the person to get the job done. This means that you will need to bootstrap (self-fund) for a while until you can prove yourself to investors. Here are a few ways you can self-fund:

Work two jobs. I worked full-time at SAS to fund myself while I was building Avelist. It meant I worked 90 hour weeks for a very long time, but it ultimately allowed me to build a prototype and get feedback from the market without needing to raise money first.

Bring team members on board who work for equity. If you can convince others to work with you (instead of you paying them in cash), you will save a ton of money and ultimately probably build a better product since everyone has "skin in the game". In order to do this you will need to convince them that the idea has potential. You will also need to learn what motivates them and offer them opportunities that are appealing to them - do they care about the job title, the learning opportunity, etc. Make sure you align expectations early (Does everyone plan on going full time? What salary do people need to live?) And also make sure that you use contracts so that all agreements are on paper.

Lower your cost of living. Go through all of your living expenses and bills. What can you cut? Can you change your cell phone plan by cutting back on data or minutes? Can you give up cable? Netflix is super cheap. Can you run outside and lift weights at home instead of paying for a gym? Order water at a restaurant instead of a drink. Look for sale items at the grocery store. It's pretty amazing how frugal you can be if you try...

Be creative. Can you share a room with another entrepreneur instead of paying for a whole room of your own? Can you live with your parents or with a close friend for a while (rent free or reduced rent)? Do you have any possessions you can sell? In order to fund Avelist, I sold my house and furniture. I also lived with my parents part of the time. You might not have the same options as I did and I might not have the same options as you do. Just be open-minded and creative…again, these are good qualities for an entrepreneur to be.

Network with investors. Just because you can't raise money right away, doesn't mean you shouldn't talk to investors. Don't hesitate to introduce yourself to investors. Buy them coffee, take their advice, keep them updated on your progress. Investors are always looking for deal flow and if you can get to know them and show them you make progress and are teachable, your chances of receiving their investment in the future definitely increase.

Start small and don't over think thingsThis might be the first time you've heard me use the word "small". Hold your horses! I'm not advocating that you aim small, but rather that you start small. If you try to solve a huge problem all at once, you risk the likely chance that you are biting off way more than you can chew.

A lot of starting small has to do with being honest with the resources you have on hand and playing to your strengths. For example, if you're a business person with no design skills or programming skills, it's going to cost a ton of money for you to build a whole app or platform (aka hire others to do it). So try validating your concept and idea by an email newsletter (you could use Mailchimp) or a Wordpress website (plug and play). See if you can gather an audience and get people to sign up for your emails. See if you can figure out how to use social media to spread the word about your site. Is there some viral component you can tap into? Once you validate your concept (by gaining an audience and building a brand people are excited about) it will be easier to bring a programmer or designer onto your team. It will also be easier to raise money!

Phew! If you made it this far through the blog post you might just have the grit and determination that it takes to build a successful company. I hope these tips provide you with some useful, foundational knowledge as you consider starting a company of your own. Feel free to comment on this post if you have questions or if you're a seasoned entrepreneur who wants to add suggestions that could help other entrepreneurs.

American Underground (the fabulous home of Avelist HQ) holds these really cool Helpfest sessions every Wednesday where they invite members of their community, host speakers, and (drum roll) provide free lunch.

Anyway, I was invited to speak on one of these Helpfest panels a few weeks ago. And, as many of you know, I love to talk so obviously I said yes. It actually didn't really register until the day of the panel (when my cofounder Josh asked me what I would be talking about) that I had been asked to talk about failure. Hmmm…I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere.

In all honesty, though, talking about failure in the startup world is super important. Because we all fail (read: make mistakes) every single day. As an entrepreneur you live in uncertainty; you make decisions based on what (often little) information you have; and hindsight is 20/20.

As we discussed on the panel, it doesn't so much matter if you make a mistake, but it does matter tremendously how you react to your mistakes. It matters how you treat people in the midst of the chaos. It matters that you keep a level head and remain focused on your mission. It matters that you recover quickly from mistakes, that you take your newfound knowledge and apply it moving forward, and that you're maybe even grateful for the learning opportunity. In my opinion, a founder's reaction to hard times, their ability to adjust and prioritize again and again, will probably be the largest determining factor in whether they ultimately succeed.

ExitEvent wrote about our panel discussion here. They also recorded the entire thing in a video which I've embedded above. Fair warning: it's a pretty long panel discussion (about an hour), but if you're in the startup world or want to be one day, I highly suggest you check it out!

This year started off with travel between NYC and NC; tons of collaboration with the fabulous Centerfold Agency on our new web design (bahhh can't wait to show you what we've come up with!), cool partnerships with media and content companies (thanks, NYC), and the pilot launch our brand new (paid!) product which we fondly call "Avelist Enterprise". That's right. Money, money, money.

Needless to say, on the Avelist side of things, I couldn't be more pleased. Last year was full of sacrifice, risky decisions, and everything that defines the early stages of entrepreneurship. I know in my heart that this year will be fast-paced, challenging, and productive - terrifyingly beautiful as I like to say.

On the personal side of things, I love living in two places at once. Not having to say "good bye" to friends and family in NC while simultaneously gainingtwo incredible NYC roommates, lots of snowy days (and new snow clothes, duh), all the entrepreneurial friendships my little heart could desire, and promises of adventure in the city that (much like me) never sleeps.

I recently chatted with another female tech founder, Vickie Gibbs, at the American Underground in celebration of Women's Entrepreneurship Day. For a quick recap of the conversation you can check out this article written by Laura Baverman of ExitEvent.

Somewhere around the 14:52 minute mark, we discuss the difference between an idea and a mission. If an idea fails, you move on. Because your idea didn't work. Why wouldn't you move on? But if you're on a mission, solving a problem, and your idea fails, then you try another idea..and then another and another. You try until your mission is complete. Until you've solved a problem. The likelihood of succeeding (persevering until you succeed) is much higher if you're on a mission.

At Avelist, the mission to make relevant, useful information easily accessible to people exactly when they need it is our driving force. It's what keeps me and Josh and the team going each and every day. It's what makes us excited on good days and keeps us in the game on bad days.

If you're considering starting a company, I highly suggest finding a problem and embarking on a mission to solve it. Many of your ideas will fail, but a mission you believe in gives you the courage, the strength, and the perseverance needed to succeed.

I’m a member of a listserv that’s full of entrepreneurs. We recently had a long conversation about quitting. It’s an interesting topic. Here are my thoughts:

The Fighting Spirit.When someone else tells me that I can’t do something, everything in me rebels against their words. If they tell me I will fail, I’m determined to succeed. My skin bristles, my muscles grow tense, and my heart flames. It’s called the fighting spirit. And it’s what makes us entrepreneurs.The Mental Battle.Interestingly enough, when the voice in my head tells me I can’t do something, it doesn’t bring out the fighting spirit. This is why the voice in our head is more dangerous than any external voice we could ever hear. And this is exactly why people say starting a company is a mental battle.A Formula to Win the Mental Game.I have a set of 5 (logical) questions I ask myself during times of stress, irritation and discouragement.

On the Flip Side: The 8 Paradoxical Traits of an EntrepreneurOriginally published on The List @ Medium I’m convinced that developing, marketing, and growing an Internet consumer product is one of the most amazing experiences a person could ever have.

Creating something from nothing and watching other people use it, love it, and share it is simultaneously the most empowering and humbling feeling. The satisfaction that comes from watching numbers climb as you tweak and improve your product is indescribable. The exhilarating triumph you feel each time you solve an unsolvable problem is your very own version of winning the lottery. And the relief that floods over you when a risky decision pays off mirrors a brush with death and results in similar feelings of invincibility and extreme gratefulness.

When it comes down to it, there is no one perfect word to describe the bizarre experience of being an entrepreneur. Call it love, call it an addiction, whatever you want to call it, I’m hooked.

On the flip side, I’m also convinced that developing, marketing, and growing an Internet consumer company is one of the most challenging, frustrating and painful journeys one could possibly choose to embark on. The marketplace for consumer platforms is insanely crowded and the expectations from users are astronomical. Without recounting every excruciating detail, let’s just say that the highs are closely rivaled by the lows.

A rollarcoaster of highs and lows. All-consuming, and never-ending. Who would ever choose that job? And who could possibly succeed in such role? It turns out that the personality traits of successful entrepreneurs are indeed, by necessity, complex.

An entrepreneur needs to be stubborn yet flexible. They need to be stubborn enough to believe in their own idea when no one else does. But at the same time, an entrepreneur needs to be flexible enough to change routes when necessary. It will often be necessary.

They need to be confident, yet humble. Confident enough to move forward alone, but humble enough to ask for help. Because no one can do it alone. They should be confident enough to stand before world leaders and humble enough to spend hours entering data into spreadsheets and making cold calls from their home office.

CLICK HERE to continue reading the 8 traits that help an entrepreneur succeed….

I've met so many incredible people on my entrepreneurial journey. On the East Coast and West Coast, in this country and other countries. We've met through Twitter conversations, blog posts, emails, Skype calls, and in-person meetings at a slew of coffee shops. Some people are just getting started in their careers and some are so established that I'm starstruck in their presence. Both are fabulous. Meeting all of these people is one of my favorite parts about being an entrepreneur.

One of my online friends (I call him that because I've never actually met him) sent me an email a few weeks ago that said "When is the world going to hear from Jody Porowski again?" Translation: When are you writing another article? I guess it had been a little while since I'd written. (We just opened a new round of funding in September and I'd been even more busy than usual). But I took his words to heart and sat down one Saturday to explain why I love being an entrepreneur despite the crazy schedule and emotional roller coaster. Here's what I came up with…

Entrepreneurs are constantly required to make decisions based on what they know (and despite what they don't know). They are constantly forced to take steps forward without having all the facts. Especially in the early stages of their company, an entrepreneur lives their life believing in something that's currently "unproven", yet they stake their livelihood and reputation on it. Why do they do this? And how?

To me it's pretty obvious that entrepreneurship requires faith in something. I suppose the difference between each entrepreneur is what they have faith in. It might be faith in their idea. Faith in the patterns they see within a particular market or industry. Faith in themselves and their skills and abilities. Faith in their experiences. Faith in mankind. Faith in their team. Or maybe faith in all of the above.

My entrepreneurial story is rooted in two types of faith: situational faith and spiritual faith. I'll try to explain…

First of all, I have a very situational, logical type of faith in Avelist. This is the kind of faith that I share with investors and the kind of faith that many of my entrepreneurial articles are written about. I believe that Avelist will be successful for many reasons.

I'm confident in my understanding of the social media and Internet consumer market. I'm confident in the trends that we've seen and the theories that we've based the company on.

I trust in the team. Each person on our team is incredibly skilled in their area of expertise. And we're committed. We're in this journey for the long haul.

I believe in the product itself and know in my heart that Avelist fills a need and solves a problem.

This belief in my team, my product and my understanding of the market gives me courage to move forward into the unknown. So where does spiritual faith come in and why do I need that too?

Here's the thing, daily rejection and failure is a very real aspect of entrepreneurship. And it's during those times of rejection and failure that spiritual faith kicks in and grounds me. Imagine believing - really believing - that there's a strong and loving God who will never leave you or forsake you, that He is powerful and in control of all things, and that He loves you enough to literally die for you. Imaginebelieving that you were created with a unique and beautiful skill set and that your life has purpose. When you're rooted in that kind of belief, you can move mountains.

Let me clear, I know God isn't some kind of magical voodoo. I know I won't succeed in everything that I attempt, but I also know that no matter what happens, I'll be ok. I understand that snags in my plan aren't a snag in the master plan. This type of faith strengthens me against the fear and the loneliness that often strike the mind and spirit of an entrepreneur. This type of faith gives me confidence to move forward in business despite all of the tremendous challenges and inevitable setbacks. It's my anchor, my compass, and the identity of my soul.

Spiritual faith is rarely a topic that I hear entrepreneurs talk about and I'm sure there are many reasons, but this blog is a place to tell my real, honest, entrepreneurial story. And the truth is that my ability to jump into the unknown is rooted in not one type of faith, but two.

I read a really cool article yesterday in the Washington Post. Someone mentioned it on Facebook. I read it, loved it, wanted to write about it. And then I realized it was an article from last year (oops - missed that)! But it was such an interesting article that I decided to write about it anyway. Couldn't help myself, you know how it is.

Ok, why'd I love it so much? That's easy.

1) Fashion:The article was about Christian Louboutin's new (er- now one year old) line of shoes called "Les Nudes." Who's Christian Louboutin, you might ask? He's a designer famous for the red bottomed soles of his shoes. But really there are just two words you should know when it comes to Christian Louboutin: "Pricey" and "I want". Ok, three words.

2) Words:Speaking of words, let's talk about the name of this collection. "Nude" in terms of fashion usually refers to a pale peach/tan color. But this particular collection is called "the nudes" - plural - and there are five shades of nude. That's incredibly significant. Nude, as the article puts it, is a spectrum.

3) People:This new line of shoes does't say one person's skin color is the right shade of nude or the fashionable shade of nude. There are many shades of nude so there should be many shades of nude shoes. It just makes sense. And there's something so profoundly beautiful about that.

4) Technology:There's an app you can download to help you pick your shade of nude. If I didn't love these shoes before, this tech shout out would've sealed the deal.

Here's the full article if you want to read more. I'll just be sitting here in my happy place...